According to <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08531c.htm>, aka Volume VIII of The Catholic Encyclopedia, “the year of Jubilee was... preeminently a time of joy, the year of remission or universal pardon.”The concept stemmed from Leviticus 25:10 of the Old Testament which stated, “Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee.”The term or derivation of the word is disputed, but probably related to the Hebrew word jobel, which meant “a ram’s horn” -- which fits in terms of an instrument to proclaim the celebration for rejoicing.

Herbert Thurston, writing in The Catholic Encyclopedia, goes on to state, “Every seventh year, like every seventh day, was always accounted holy and set aside for rest, but the year which followed seven complete cycles was to be kept as a sabbatical year of special solemnity.The Talmudists and others afterwards disputed whether the Jubilee Year was the forty-ninth or the fiftieth year, the difficulty being that in the latter case two sabbatical years must have been observed in succession.”

Separately, Gabriel Oussani, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08534a.htm> writes that “According to the Pentateuchal legislation contained in Leviticus, a Jubilee year is the year that follows immediately seven successive Sabbatic years (the Sabbatic year being the seventh year of a seven-year cycle).Accordingly, the Jubilee year takes place at the end of seven times seven years, i.e. at the end of every forty-nine years, or the fiftieth."

The institution of the Jubilee-year system is thus an extension of the Sabbatic-year where at the end of every six years there is a Sabbatic year, and that at the end of seven Sabbatic years, there is a Jubilee year.The Jubilee Year is thus the fiftieth year, such that at the end of each forty-eight years there occur two consecutive fallow years, i.e. the forty-ninth and the fiftieth.Also, the Jubilee Year is based on itself absolutely, such that if, for example, the year 2000 is Jubilee Year, and a debt had been occurred in 1960 (or 1933), then the debt was to be waived not in 2010, but in 2000 (while the 1933 debt should have already been waived in 1950) -- either case in the appointed year of Jubilee.

The Christians (the Catholic Church) subsequently adopted the Jubilee period as the fiftieth year as well -- dependent upon Leviticus 25:8-55 -- and thus the Jubilee year was to be celebrated as the recovery of every household’s absent members, the return of land to its former owners, the emancipation of slaves, and the remittance of all debts.

It is not clear what form of continuity existed between the Jewish and Christian Jubilees, and it has been assumed that the first Christian Jubilee was in the year 1300 (ostensibly proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in response to statements of aged pilgrims who claimed that great indulgences had been granted to all pilgrims in Rome a hundred years prior). There is some speculation that Boniface VIII had intended that the Jubilee be celebrated only once every hundred years, but eventually Pope Clement VI was made to realize that the average span of human life was sufficiently short as to render it impossible for many to hope to see any Jubilee in their own generation.Clement then did the expedient thing in 1350 ofmaking this a Jubilee year in its own right.Subsequent Christian Jubilee years were initiated at various times (other than every fifty years), but the sequence eventually reduced itselfto a twenty five year period as the predominant form.

But in the Hebrew tradition, the 50 year rule stands.Just as the seven Days of the Week end on the seventh day with the Sabbath.

The magical quality of seven and Sabbatical thinking has resulted in modern times in the tradition (and legality) of any individual being limited to taking bankruptcy only once every seven years.Furthermore, at the end of an additional seven years, the bankruptcy is removed from the public record (although credit bureaus regularly ignore this in lieu of keeping it on the books for a longer period of time).

But other possibilities can be truly mind-boggling.For example, it might not seem like a big deal initially, but there is a curious aspect of fundamental law which disallows new law from contradicting older law.Thus if the 50 year rule is truly law (and all subsequent law which contradicts it, automatically null and void), then all debts incurred prior to less than fifty years ago -- no matter when the actual Jubilee year is (the year 2000 or otherwise) -- then all such debts entered into then are already remitted.

Applying this law to the US Bankruptcy and its aftermath -- including The Decree, the need for Emergency War Powers, Executive Orders and the like -- it becomes apparent that ancient law dictates that The Federal Reserve and its financial hold over the people of the United States is no longer legal!The United States’s national debt is remitted!All those credit card debts are, at some point in absolute reckoning, reduced to zero!

All of this might easily be a reason for Jubilation!(Not to mention a legal and moral way of balancing the books on the machinations of international banksters.)Perhaps it is truly time to pull out the old Ram’s Horn and party hardy!!

In celebration of this year's Ides of March (when perhaps all financial caesars, czars, emperors, pharoahs, et al should take stock of who their alleged friends are), we perhaps should note another, albeit somewhat stranger take on the subject. It turns out that the United States of America may have its own special Jubilee Year. This is, at least, the view of George Friedman in his book, The Next 100 Years... which is highlighted in a new webpage here at Halexandria. It appears that a roughly 50 year cycle is showing up in failed presidencies that are followed by a "new deal" with an incoming president. The cycle is amazingly accurate, and brings up a very interesting proposition.

If the tradition of Jubilee Years is the forgiveness of debt, then perhaps plans should be laid for a total forgiveness of all debt as of January 20, 2031 -- exactly 50 years from the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan who introduced into the economy the official governmental laize faire attitude toward corporate grand theft. With the banksters bailout of 2008/2009, this would seem to be the idea end game conclusion. All the new mortgages and alternative financing currently being foisted upon the public -- with the attendant loan origination fees further enriching the lenders (in addtion to their huge bonus at the end of 2008) -- all the new loans could then be viewed as ALL being loans of 22 years or less. Recently got a 30-year loan? No problem. Same terms, but whatever your balance is on January 19, 2031, the following day the balance is zero.

Curiously, the entire thing may happen without any official decree. Certainly, the debt owed by the United States to its citizens in terms of Social Security will almost certainly cause a total collapse of the financial end of things. So why not do the same for the money the citizens owe the government and its corporate allies? Kiss off any IRS debt, for example. Everyone will just have to chalk it up to the price one pays for living far beyond one's means. And the timing may be just ideal inasmuch as China and Russia will probably be struggling just to survive by that time, and Japan, Turkey, and Poland will not yet, individually or collectively, have challenged the United States to begin the mid-century war -- you really want to read The Next Hundred Years!

Cycles are just fascinating things... and the idea that the United States may be operating under a Jubilee Year cycle... as inevitable as the cycles that move the planets... has got to grab your attention.